It is not uncommon to see on a desktop multiple individual documents, such as letters, contracts, reports, articles, etc. shingled or stair-stepped (shingling) in such a way that one document horizontally overlays then next with a small offset so as to expose only the top part of each document. This traditional practice is sometimes known as shingling and requires nothing to accomplish, other than a relatively flat surface and the presence of relatively flat objects to be shingled.
Shingling has the advantage of allowing the user to hold many more documents on the desktop than would be possible if the documents were laid end to end, and shingling has the advantage over evenly stacked documents, as shingling allows for the quick recognition and selection of a desired document.
This Inventor was one of those business people who frequently horizontally shingled documents on his desk. However, he was consistently frustrated with some of the major limitations inherent in shingling, specifically:
1.) How quickly the shingled pile seemed to get out of order or out of the original evenly spaced shingled format when documents were selected and removed from the shingled pile. This fact, resulted in the expenditure of time and effort to maintain the original shingled format, and;
2.) The difficulty in transporting a shingled pile, resulting in the necessity to contract the shingled pile before transporting and then re-extend the documents back into a shingled form after transportation, again taking much time and energy to recreate the shingled format.
This Inventor set out in search of a container that would solve the above two limitations. Having searched multiple office supply sources, with no solution found, the inventor turned to the patent office to see if anyone had ever developed a container to improve the handling of horizontally shingled documents.
Again, no solution was found. Although the patent office showed several types of extending filing systems, none of them were designed, nor met the needs for handling and transporting horizontally shingled documents commonly found on desktops.
To be successful in the handling and transporting of horizontally shingled documents, several goals would need to be met, and several prior art limitations and disadvantages would need to be overcome.
No other prior art reviewed incorporates all of the features and benefits of the present invention. Also, the prior art contains limitations and disadvantages that are overcome by the present invention, some examples of the prior arts limitations and disadvantages include:
a. Sealed receptacle sides
b. Protrusions or holes on the facing walls of a receptacle
c. Document contact with a sliding panel or the sliding mechanism
d. Requirement of a separate rigid casing or fixed sized cover
e. Lack of a securing device
f. Securing device is not easily adjustable to a wide variety of thicknesses
g. Cost is higher, resulting from the number of parts, material type and fabrication cost.
In sum, none of the prior art descriptions state that they were invented for the purpose of improving the handling, transportation and re-shingling of horizontally shingled documents commonly found on desktops; in fact, the majority refer to either vertical operation and/or a hanging orientation of the inventions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,396 Nomura
a. Nomura describes a bag with three sealed sides, as opposed to present invention""s one closed side.
b. Given the fixed length of the wrap around cover, the number of bags is restricted to that which can be enclosed within the fixed length cover. Conversely, present invention uses separate back and front covers to allow for a wide range of thicknesses.
c. Nomura""s outer cover requires full opening, and thus a preset amount of space before bags can commence sliding.
d. Nomura requires the addition of a third connecting element for the purpose of attaching one bag to another. Present invention requires no such third element, significantly reducing material and manufacturing cost.
e. As a bag becomes full, insertion and extraction of additional objects becomes increasing difficult and eventually insertion is restricted by the maximum capacity of the bag. Present invention has no sides, thus allowing a much greater range of capacity.
f. Bags are physically connected, thus separation of bags and/or reorganization is not possible. Present invention allows the user to reorganize, add or subtract receptacles.
g. Nomura describes the requirement of plastic material to create the invention. Present invention has no such limitation of material type and thus allows for flexibility to use materials of less cost.
h. Nomura""s requires the front and back bags to be attached to the cover. Present invention integrates functional receptacles into both the back and front panels of the cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,066 LaWall
a. LaWall also describes a pocket with three sealed sides.
b. LaWall describes the preferred embodiment as a vertical operation not horizontal.
c. LaWall""s individual pockets show no protection from reverse force movement that would result in his invention""s unintentional disposition or disassembly.
d. As a pocket becomes full, insertion and extraction of additional objects becomes increasing difficult and eventually restricted to the maximum width of the pocket.
e. Attempted horizontal usage would cause an angled disposition of each of the pockets, placing excessive stress on the telescoping mechanism resulting in difficulty when attempting to return the invention to registry.
f. Finally, attempted horizontal usage would cause the envelopes to come in contact with the enclosed documents during the telescoping process, resulting in friction on the enclosed documents that would result in movement of the documents and the loss of the desired evenly shingled format.
U.S. Pat. No. 44,444,314 Jacobsson
a. Jacobsson describes the need for an outer box like case to contain the pocket like receptacles. An outer box like case is more expensive in terms of both the type of material required and the additional manufacturing process. Also, a fixed size case limits the total capacity to the width of the case.
b. Jacobsson describes the design of the folders"" movement in terms of vertical operation, not horizontally.
c. Jacobsson requires additional intermediate coupling and sliding members, and an inner cover enclosing, thus increasing the material and manufacturing costs.
d. The internal walls of Jacobsson""s pockets contain both protrusions and openings that would inhibit the smooth slide of a document during insertion, if horizontal operation was attempted.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,544 Schweinsberg
a. Schweinsberg describes a pocket with three sealed sides.
b. The invention has no housing or cover wrap that would allow the unit to easily protect any exposed objects during transportation.
c. The lack of a cover wrap also allows contained objects to slide out during transportation, thus severely limiting the suitability of using the invention for the transportation of contained objects.
d. Further, the lack of a cover wrap allows for the potential of unintentional displacement of the folders while in transportation.
e. Single internally centered tongues and tapered flaps result in poor lateral stability, i.e. the ease of keeping alignment with the proceeding folder becomes increasing difficult as folders are added.
f. The openings, created by the tongues, in the folders"" walls and the tabs on the tongues are likely to catch or snag a document as it is inserted into a folder.
g. As a pocket becomes full, insertion and extraction of additional objects becomes increasing difficult and eventually insertion is restricted by the maximum capacity of the pocket.
h. Schweinsberg describes the invention in terms of vertical operation and/or an accordion type of movement, not horizontal. Attempted horizontal usage would cause parts of the pockets to come in contact with the enclosed objects during the displacement process, resulting in friction on the enclosed objects and thus movement of the objects away from the desired evenly shingled format.
Card/Index Systems
Multiple prior art examples can be found in the area of card files. In the prior art of card files, the cards are not described as a method to hold other objects containing information, but the cards themselves are the bearer of said information.
Some of these card systems even telescope, but because they lack a true full bottom between each card, a method of holding an independent object is not feasible, nor does the prior art inventions describe that they were designed for such a purpose. As seen in Eddy, U.S. Pat. No. 2,524,965; Gabel, U.S. Pat. No. 1,551,302 and Waller, U.S. Pat. No. 972,302.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,028 Hatano
a. The invention describes envelopes with three closed sides.
b. Invention requires a separate rigid case for protected transportation and to support the extensions of the envelopes.
c. Hatano describes the design of the folders"" movement in terms of vertical operation, not horizontally
d. An outer box-like case is more expensive in terms of both the type of material required and the additional manufacturing process.
e. A rigid case restricts the maximum capacity that it can hold.
f. As an envelope becomes full, insertion and extraction of additional objects becomes increasing difficult and eventually insertion is restricted by the maximum capacity of the envelope.
g. Attempted horizontal usage would cause parts of the pockets to come in contact with the enclosed objects during the extension process, resulting in friction on the enclosed objects and thus movement of the objects away from the desired evenly shingled format.
h. The invention describes no protection from reverse operation and thus unintentional disassembly is likely.
This inventor""s aim was to economically provide a container that would aid in the overall handling of documents, normally found in a horizontally shingled format on desktops. Specifically, to provide for the convenient; inserting, extracting, shielding, storing, spacing, contracting, securing, protecting, transporting and re-shingling of the documents, all the while keeping the documents substantially free from shifting in their receptacles, so that the desired shingled spacing is maintained.
To be successful in this aim, several goals would need to be met:
a. It was a goal that the facing internal walls of the receptacles would be free from any protrusions or holes that could interfere with or inhibit the smooth glide of a horizontally oriented document into the bottom of a receptacle. This smooth wall goal had to support angled insertion and variable sizes of the documents being inserted. This goal became especially challenging for the back most receptacle, as it contained protrusions created by the elastic strap used in securing the unit, and thus in order to keep the last receptacle functional, an additional covering tab needed to be developed.
b. In traditional shingling, a user is not restricted by a preset maximum number of pages, documents or groups of documents, i.e. no preset limit on the thickness of any one shingle in a shingled pile. Thus, a traditional receptacle sealed on three sides would not work; as such receptacles have a maximum preset capacity. This resulted in the goal for an open sided receptacle that could accommodate documents with a wide range of thicknesses.
c. Also, an open sided receptacle would more closely match the method documents are traditionally inserted into a traditional shingled pile i.e. the user normally begins the insertion at an angle to the shingled pile, and thus an open sided receptacle satisfied this goal.
d. Further, resistance in insertion and extraction of documents increases as a sealed three-sided receptacle reaches its maximum capacity. This resistance is not experienced with traditional shingling and thus an open sided receptacle removed this serious limitation.
e. A final benefit of an open sided receptacle was the ability to continue the traditional viewing advantage inherent in shingling, that is, of being able to quickly view a partially covered document by simply lifting, at an angle, the preceding document. This action is significantly easier and faster than having to extract and then possibly return a document, as would be necessary with a sealed three-sided receptacle.
f. However, the elimination of sealed sides on a receptacle, also introduced new challenges, such as the goal to securely hold enclosed documents during transportation of the container, else documents may slide out one of the open sides. This challenge resulted in a comprehensive design for a securing device that simultaneously; contains all sides of the container, sandwiches the documents, is easy to use and has the ability to adjust to a wide range of container thicknesses.
g. A key goal and design challenge was that a document must be kept almost completely isolated from any part of the sliding mechanism, as contact with a moving sliding mechanism during extension will cause a horizontally stored piece of paper to shift or move away from the bottom of the pocket, resulting in a loss of the desired evenly spaced shingled format.
h. In a traditional shingled pile, made up of mostly white papers, it can become difficult to quickly identify the separation points between the shingles. Thus, a goal was to create dividers that extended beyond the top edge of a document and provided a visual delineation between shingled documents.
i. Given that traditional shingling is xe2x80x9cfreexe2x80x9d, i.e. an external device is not required to shingle documents, it was a goal to be able to produce the container at relatively low costs and introduce advantages over traditional shingling. The result was a design that is the lowest cost container for document handling, as compared to any of the prior arts.
j. The goal of low cost, also drove the need to select low cost materials, limit the number of different types of material used and limit the number of parts required to create the container. The result of these goals was: paper, 3 and 2 respectively.
k. The goal of low cost also drove the need to create a design that could be produced by standard industry mechanized equipment. The result was a design that can be fabricated almost completely by standard die stamping and standard folding and gluing equipment.
l. Maximum design efficiency and simplicity was another goal. Given that the general goal was the handling of documents, any part or piece that did not perform this function, was minimized. Conversely, many prior art designs contain separate coupling members, separate sliding panels, a need for an exterior box, the loss of a receptacle due to the attaching of the covering panel to a receptacle, a more expensive covering panel. The result of this maximum efficiency goal resulted in a container that only requires a total of three panels as the main elements of a container. Examples of this efficiency include; every panel can hold a document, i.e. the first and last panels are not used up for connection to a covering panel. This was accomplished by the integration of the sliding mechanics with the panel and the panels and the covering panel all utilize the same sliding mechanism. None of the prior art achieved this level of efficiency, except for maybe Schweinsberg, but even this would not directly compare as he does not incorporate a covering panel or securing device for transportation.
m. As in traditional shingling, the overall length of a shingled pile is only limited by desktop space. It was thus a goal that any desired number of pockets could be connected together in series. This goal put unique demands on the covering panel, as the panel could not limit the number of pockets or the overall thickness of the container. The result was a covering panel with separate front and back panels. By not connecting these two panels, the number of receptacles and the related thickness of the stored documents in the receptacles could vary greatly. Many of the prior art covering panels were formed from a single piece, and thus as they wrapped around the container, their capacity became limited to the preset width of the spine or backbone of the covering panel.
n. Because the number of receptacles could grow to be fairly large, it was important to engineer a sliding mechanism that had maximum lateral stability, so that the receptacles would stay in alignment when fully extended. This goal resulted in a two-part solution. First, minimizing the space between the folded edge of the track and the tab riding in the track, and second, by placing the tracks at the far edges of each panel and designing the four tabs to be spaced a maximum distance apart, created a very laterally stable structure. The structure also allowed for the use of lower cost materials, as it aided in the disbursement of stress during extending and contracting.
o. Although traditional shingling does not do much to aid in the retention of a document""s position, it was a goal to provide a container that would aid in the retention of a document so that it would not shift from its position while adjacent documents were inserted or extracted from the shingled pile.
p. A goal was to protect the documents during transportation using a folding flap and securely sandwiching the documents in their receptacles, so upon re-extension of the container, the evenly spaced shingled format would be preserved.
q. It was a goal to provide predetermined stop points for the sliding mechanism in order to limit the range of movement in both directions during extension and contraction. This was a goal so as to prevent both unintended reverse displacement and/or disassembly.
r. In a traditional shingled pile, a user can grab half the pile and walk away with it leaving the other half on the desk. Thus, it was a goal that the receptacles could separate or disengage each other to allow for the movement of a subset of the shingled pile. The ability to easily disengage panels, also allows for panels to be rearranged in different orders, or combined with other panels.
s. Not found in traditional shingling, is a quick and easy way of re-shingling a pile that had been contracted. The desire for this benefit became a main design goal.
Further uses, benefits and advantages will become apparent from a review of the ensuing descriptions and drawings.